The Smoky River* photographs were taken between 1900 and 1914. They are of school children and of Lydia’s niece, Nina Sohlberg, with her girlfriends. Lydia had her trusting subjects take risks to get the right compositions for her photographs as you can see in many of these photographs, especially the one near the end!

*Early in the history of Lindsborg, the Smoky River was called the Smoky Hill River; and the Smoky Valley was called the Smoky Hill River Valley. (This river is a tributary of the Missouri River which flows into the Mississippi River.)